Did you hear about that significant settlement involving Epic Games and their game Fortnite?
Apparently, the government accused them of violating some privacy laws regarding collecting personal information from kids. They had to pay a ton of penalties – $275 million!
Can you believe that?
So, the issue was with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule).
These laws say that online service providers must get verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from kids under 13.
It’s a big deal because kids’ personal information is sensitive, and getting consent helps protect their privacy and safety.
But Epic Games was accused of designing and marketing Fortnite for kids and collecting their personal information without telling their parents or getting consent.
They were also accused of having default privacy settings that publicly showed kids’ and teens’ display names and put them in direct communication with adult players, which violated the Federal Trade Commission Act.
As part of the settlement, Epic Games had to pay the big fine and also agree to maintain certain privacy settings, delete some personal information they previously collected from kids, and have a comprehensive privacy program.
If the settlement is approved, they’ll also be permanently banned from collecting personal information from kids in a way that violates the COPPA Rule.
Crazy, right?
